Integrated Thinking & Reporting

An Integrated Report is a concise communication about how an organisation’s strategy, governance, performance and prospects, in the context of its external environment, lead to the creation of value over the short, medium and long term.

Integrated reporting is an evolution of corporate reporting, with a focus on conciseness, strategic relevance and future orientation. It has been created to enhance accountability, stewardship and trust as well as to harness the information flow and transparency of business that technology has brought to the modern world.

An Integrated Report brings many benefits to organisations and their stakeholders (including employees, customers, suppliers, business partners, local communities, legislators, regulators and policy-makers) by linking financial and non-financial elements of the company’s business together and thus presenting a more holistic picture of the company’s value creation, business model and strategy. Providing investors with the information they need to make more effective capital allocation decisions will facilitate better long-term investment returns. For this reason, today IR is by many seen as the future of reporting.

Publishing integrated reports nowadays has become commonplace, it is strongly recommended by international competent authorities and in some countries (such as in South Africa and Brazil for example) it is a requirement for listed companies. The most widely used framework for integrated reporting is the IIRC’s (International Integrated Reporting Council) Integrated Reporting Framework. As set out in the International Framework , an integrated report is a concise communication about how an organisation’s strategy, governance, performance and prospects, in the context of its external environment, lead to the creation of value in the short, medium and long term. The Framework was developed after extensive consultation with businesses and investors, and guided by the learning of 140 participants from 26 countries in the IIRC Pilot Programme. It enables a business to bring these elements together through the concept of 'connectivity of information', to best tell an organisation’s value creation story.

Some consulting companies are now providing Integrating Reporting Services to help companies develop a structured document that can be used to communicate company’s value creation, business model and strategy. Thanks to these new practices, businesses have reported breakthroughs in understanding value creation, greater collaboration within their teams, more informed decision making and positive impacts on stakeholder relations.

Integrated thinking leads to integrated decision-making and actions that consider the creation of value over the short, medium and long term. In simple terms, this means thinking holistically about the resources and relationships the organisation uses or affects, and the dependencies and trade-offs between them as value is created. In applying this mindset, the organisation views itself as part of a greater system, one shaped by the quality, availability and cost of resources, as well as evolving regulations, norms and stakeholder expectations, which can lead to behavioural changes and improvement in performance throughout an organisation.